Gospel for August 17, 2013 , Saturday, 19th Week in Ordinary Time Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. Posted at 08/17/2013 12:24 AM | Updated as of 08/17/2013 12:24 AM Psalter: Week 3 Ps16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 11 You are my inheritance, O Lord. 1st Reading: Jos 24:14–29* Joshua addressed the tribes of Israel, “So fear Yahweh, and be sincere and faithful in serving him. Set aside those gods your ancestors worshiped in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Serve only Yahweh. But if you do not want to serve Yahweh, make known this very day whom you shall serve ... The people answered: “May God not permit that we ever abandon Yahweh to serve other gods! For it was he who brought us and our ancestors out of Egypt, the house of slavery. It was he who did those great wonders that we have seen; he protected us on the way and through all the land where we passed, driving away before us all the nations especially the Amorites who lived in this land. So we shall also serve Yahweh: he is our God!” Joshua asked the people: “Will you be able to serve Yahweh? He is a Holy God, a Jealous God who does not tolerate wickedness or faults. If you abandon Yahweh to serve other gods, he will turn against you and just as he has done you so much good, so shall he punish you and destroy you.”... Joshua then said, “Remove now from your midst any other gods and serve Yahweh, the God of Israel, with all your heart.” The people answered: “We will serve Yahweh, our God, and obey his commands.” ... Then Joshua said to the people: “This stone shall be a witness to all that Yahweh said to us, for it heard all these words. It shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with Yahweh.” Joshua immediately sent the people away and everyone returned to his land. Gospel: Mt 19:13–15 Little children were brought to Jesus that he might lay his hands on them with a prayer. But the disciples scolded those who brought them. Jesus then said, “Let them be! Do not stop the children from coming to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to people such as these.” So Jesus laid his hands on them and went his way. Reflection: “Let them be!” This was Jesus’s response when he found the disciples preventing little children from flocking to him. Do those words ring a bell? In the beginning of creation, God commanded, “Let There Be!” The primordial “Be”! This “letting be” belongs to God who is infinite freedom and shares it generously with us, human beings. Our God is a God who affirms our being at its very depth and in its most fundamental desire. At its core, our being desires God and the eagerness of the little children to come to Jesus is indicative of the same. We are called to say “yes” to this invitation to “be”; and we are asked not to prevent anyone from saying “yes” to the same call. “The man who utters this Yes knows that he himself has been affirmed from some quarter: someone has bestowed on him the Yes of being. To be, really to be, is precious” (Hans Urs von Balthasar).
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 23:24:04 +0000